British soprano Katherine Watson studied at Trinity College, Cambridge and was a member of Le Jardin des Voix. Katherine was a Young Artist with the Classical Opera Company and the recipient of the Glyndebourne John Christie Award. She appears regularly with Les Arts Florissants (William Christie and Paul Agnew), Les Concert d’Astrée (Emmanuelle Haïm), Le Concert Spirituel (Hervé Niquet), Polyphony (Stephen Layton), The Sixteen (Harry Christopher), Ensemble Pygmalion (Raphaël Pichon), and Les Talens Lyriques (Christophe Rousset).

Katherine's highlights of this season and beyond include a return to the Théâtre des Champs Elysées as Giunone in Monteverdi’s Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria with Emmanuelle Haïm, her début with Komische Oper Berlin as AméliteZoroastre with Christian Curnyn, Miranda with the Opéra Comique, Paris, Handel's Messiah with the Handel and Haydn Society, Boston, IphisJephtha with the Opéra National de Paris with William Christie, and performances of the role of Dalila in Handel’s Samson as part of the Festival d’Opéra Baroque et Romantic de Beaune.

Bach Mass in B minor, The Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge / Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment

Hyperion CD A68181/2 (May 2018)

Katherine Watson’s soaring soprano also strikes up an alluring partnership with Iestyn Davies for the ‘Et in unum Deum’”… After a splendidly august ‘Gratias agimus tibi’ comes a ‘Domine Deus’ in which Katherine Watson and Gwilym Bowen flirt as if Bach had written an operatic love duet.

Paul Riley, BBC Music Magazine

Bach Mass in B minor, Les Arts Florissants

Harmonia Mundi (March 2018)

Mead and Katherine Watson are gloriously compatible in ‘Et in unum’.

Jonathan Freeman-Attwood, Gramophone

J.S. Bach, Mass in B Minor

Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge, Hyperion CDA68181/2 (February 2018)

Handel Messiah, Le Concert Spirituel / Hervé Niquet

Handel Jephtha (Iphis), Opéra National de Paris

Palais Garnier, Paris (January 2018)

The musical performance, meanwhile, is gripping. As Iphis, soprano Katherine Watson brings a pure, bell-like timbre and stylish ornamentation to her arias, evolving from a girlish coquette into a pious martyr.

Rebecca Schmid, Financial Times

Watson's high, clear soprano was well suited to the character, and her interpretation of "Happy they!" (an aria borrowed from Ariodante) was particularly poignant.

Laura Servidei, bachtrack.com

Katherine Watson’s Iphis, already heard at the Beaune Festival in 2015, is even more striking. It feels like a long time has passed since Le Jardin des Voix introduced the young British soprano on to the French operatic stage. Today, the artist regularly stands out in the principle roles of the baroque repertoire thanks to a luminosity carried by a delicious treble and agile trills.

Charlotte Saulneron, Res Musica

Katherine Watson’s trills are the natural prolonging of a deliciously vibrated and vibrant treble.

Charles Arden, Olyrix

Katherine Watson sang the role of Iphis with a high soprano of great beauty. Her rendition of “Happy they!” was quite moving.

James L. Paulk, Classical Voice America

Katherine Watson is a noble and sensitive Iphis…a remarkable debut at the Opéra de Paris.

Christine Ducq, La Revue du Spectacle

Katherine Watson sings with a light, agile and well-controlled soprano voice, at first so happy-in-love, then as a visibly mature Iphis.

Alexander Jordis-Lohausen, Opera Point

Rameau Zoroastre (Amélite)

Komische Oper Berlin

Katherine Watson as Amélite had vocal and physical charm.

Tom Sutcliffe, Opera Now

Lully Persée (Merope), Le Concert Spirituel/Hervé Niquet

Alpha 967 (CD)

Even better is the Merope of Katherine Watson, a singer I keep encountering at the moment whose vocal production and lovely tone again delight me, and whose loss of Persée is expressed with especially touching sensitivity.

Handel Theodora (Title), Les Arts Florissants

US & European Tour (November 2015)

A fine roster of soloists was led by the creamy-voiced soprano Katherine Watson as Theodora... In air after air, Ms. Watson brought vocal bloom, emotional depth and beguiling phrasing to her exemplary performance.

Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times

A voice which combines strength and shape, [Watson’s] Theodora has serious dramatic impact and beauty.

Frank Cadenhead, Opera Today

The pure voice of Watson is full of beauty and inner persuasion. In her duets with Didymus it blended beautifully with the tones of Jaroussky...there were moments when the voices of Watson and Jaroussky were completely at one with the orchestra, growing out of it, melting with it in perfect harmonic expression.

Olga de Kort, Bachtrack

Handel Theodora (DVD)

Les Arts Florissants/William Christie (April 2017)

Katherine Watson captures the full measure of Theodora's dignity, lyricism and profound sublimity in every crucial scene; the middle part of Angels, ever bright and fair has seldom been so beautifully illustrative of the heroine's desperate plight.

Katherine Watson’s soaring soprano also strikes up an alluring partnership with Iestyn Davies for the ‘Et in unum Deum’”… After a splendidly august ‘Gratias agimus tibi’ comes a ‘Domine Deus’ in which Katherine Watson and Gwilym Bowen flirt as if Bach had written an operatic love duet.

The musical performance, meanwhile, is gripping. As Iphis, soprano Katherine Watson brings a pure, bell-like timbre and stylish ornamentation to her arias, evolving from a girlish coquette into a pious martyr.

Rebecca Schmid, Financial Times

Watson's high, clear soprano was well suited to the character, and her interpretation of "Happy they!" (an aria borrowed from Ariodante) was particularly poignant.

Laura Servidei, bachtrack.com

Katherine Watson’s Iphis, already heard at the Beaune Festival in 2015, is even more striking. It feels like a long time has passed since Le Jardin des Voix introduced the young British soprano on to the French operatic stage. Today, the artist regularly stands out in the principle roles of the baroque repertoire thanks to a luminosity carried by a delicious treble and agile trills.

Charlotte Saulneron, Res Musica

Katherine Watson’s trills are the natural prolonging of a deliciously vibrated and vibrant treble.

Charles Arden, Olyrix

Katherine Watson sang the role of Iphis with a high soprano of great beauty. Her rendition of “Happy they!” was quite moving.

James L. Paulk, Classical Voice America

Katherine Watson is a noble and sensitive Iphis…a remarkable debut at the Opéra de Paris.

Christine Ducq, La Revue du Spectacle

Katherine Watson sings with a light, agile and well-controlled soprano voice, at first so happy-in-love, then as a visibly mature Iphis.